Did You Know...

You know, I was going to call it a night. And then I saw the story about John McCain’s appearance at the 9/11 Columbia University forum earlier this evening.

Every time you grit your teeth and defend this guy, he pulls something like this. Hey, Maverick: Way to throw Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani, and your strategists who had the sense to seize on Obama’s abysmal, ineffectual record as a Chicago rabble-rouser under the bus!

Barack Obama and John McCain attempted to set their differences aside Thursday night, if only for a moment, as they encouraged Americans to volunteer in their community and military at a forum on national service.

Few sparks flew at the Columbia University event, hosted by ServiceNation. The candidates — who were interviewed separately — were encouraged to keep campaign politics to a minimum, out of respect for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

In that spirit, McCain at one point softened the language used by his running mate last week at the Republican National Convention, where she mocked Obama’s early days as a community organizer.

“Governor Palin was responding to the criticism of her inexperience, her job as a mayor in a small town,” McCain explained. “Of course I respect community organizers. Of course I respect people who’ve served their communities, and Senator Obama’s record there is outstanding.”

“Outstanding?”

Are you kidding me? Does McCain need talking points on the government-subsidized fraud machine that is ACORN? Here are the ACORN Watch archives: Print and read.

Does McCain even know about the Annenberg Challenge disaster? Someone set up a briefing for him with Stanley Kurtz, stat! Is he even aware of Obama’s own disavowal of his failed community organizer efforts?

McCain has just taken one of his own campaign’s most effective lines of attack against his opponent’s feckless, far Left past and tossed it away — like the rose Obama flung in the water.

What’s next? Will McCain attack those who mock Obama’s “outstanding” community organizer record as racist, too?